Saturday in the Park

I wish every day was the 4th of July…

We had the boys last night, and once again, it was two geezers getting the toddler beat-down. And a fantastic time was had by all.

Seems it was Grandparents Take Grandchildren to the Park Night at Brookside East. And we didn’t even go till around 7:45 p.m. We saw two other sets of grandparents playing…possibly doing the “let’s wear them out before bedtime” game. Heh.

It’s not that I want to bomb my space with pictures of my grandchildren (all right, that’s a big fat lie), but what is more delightful and simple and beautiful than children laughing and playing? It’s something I wish I could watch all the time, every day. Behold:

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And that’s how I spent my Saturday night. Bring on the Tylenol, and let’s do it all over again.

:-)

Opening the door…

…and stepping out of the closet. I will admit this day:

I don’t particularly care for 3-D movies. I want to like them; aren’t we supposed to like them? I mean, it’s not that Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon weren’t enjoyable. They were. Or at least I think they were. Anyway, my negative attitude about them basically remained hidden until I ran across an article in Newsweek by Roger Ebert. At last — validation.

It’s not that I needed somebody “in the business” to tell me I wasn’t crazy for not going absolutely ape over 3-D. Rather, I think I needed someone to offer some legitimate reasons why it might be so. Rog came through. He summed up a fine article thusly:

I’m not opposed to 3-D as an option. I’m opposed to it as a way of life for Hollywood, where it seems to be skewing major studio output away from the kinds of films we think of as Oscar-worthy. Scorsese and Herzog make films for grown-ups. Hollywood is racing headlong toward the kiddie market. Disney recently announced it will make no more traditional films at all, focusing entirely on animation, franchises, and superheroes. I have the sense that younger Hollywood is losing the instinctive feeling for story and quality that generations of executives possessed. It’s all about the marketing.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Totally unrelated: I found this on a Mo Williams fan page on Facebook this morning…

STFP?  HAaaaa. My cuss ins Glenn, Susie, Randy and Kathie would think that was funny.

All right. That was your cheap laugh for the morning. Sip your coffee and move along.

Happy Saturnday!

FO

Stuff I Want II

Me and me. And then there’s me, yay.

The original list just keeps getting longer. And no, I haven’t acquired one single thing from it yet. What do you make of this?

Fiends who posted their Git List in the comments section of that long-ago post — any of those wishes come true over the last year? I covet your updates. Kody asked for a Cavs championship…I hope that happens, really. The drought is long and long.

I will add the nook to the list. (Helen, has the price come down at all?) Oh, and Season 3 of Mad Men on DVD.

Our school tech admin turns 50 today. We’re all wearing black and playing little practical jokes and engaging in general chicanery. It’s all fun and games when it’s not you, ja?

Yabbut

What about 2008?

The Chinese women’s gymnastics team from the 2000 Olympic Games was stripped of their bronze medal yesterday, after the IOC confirmed that Dong Fangxiao, pictured here, was not the minimum age of 16 when she competed (she was only 14). The bronze instead went to the USA team.

Yabbut…what about 2008? I yammered on about this very issue, after I watched the Chinese “women” take the gold medal, with the USA coming in second. Click over to that post and look closely at the photo of the Chinese team. If all those girls are 16, I am Mary on a donkey.

This is not to say that the US hasn’t had its share of cheaters in the Olympics. Rather, it is to ponder why the IOC would swiftly rule on a happenstance case (the error wasn’t realized until Fangxiao recently applied to be a team official and listed her birthdate on the paperwork, and someone put two and two together and got 14), and not the more obvious violation of just two years ago? Who knows…maybe they are, and maybe they will act — it’ll just likely take another ten years.

Image credit: Shanghaiist.com

Things that make you go…

what the –?

So, Mad Men star Vincent Kartheiser is in the news — for getting rid of his bathroom commode, and almost everything else. Living off the fat of the land, as it were, on a nondescript street in LA, Kartheiser has given away his car, dozens of expensive gifts, and every mirror in his house (a place he describes as “just a wooden box”). I am not making this up. Since he has thrown away his own toilet, he is relegated to using his neighbor’s, “for now.” [warning: profanity galore]

What the…?

But no matter. I still love MM, and am looking forward to 25 July, when Season 4 drops. Yay! I’ll be in San Bernardino that night.

The Wigwam Motel had better have AMC…

FO

Image credit: AMCTV.com